After considerable thought and discussion, we here at the Big sites have decided to require that all commenters register in order to post comments. Therefore, going forward, we kindly ask that you register with a valid email address at Intense Debate, which serves our comments. You will be promoted to sign up the next time you leave a comment, or you can sign up at any time at IntenseDebate.com. This change will bring us in line with our practice on the Breitbart.com site, which requires registration, as do nearly all other major websites.

There are several reasons for this change:

First, we wish to intensify the feeling of community that all three sites currently enjoy with our readers. It’s often said that “Commenters are Our Most Important Contributors” and by registering – under your real name or any alias you choose – you will also be creating your own unique persona, the better to express your views and engage in dialogue with other commenters, authors, and editors.

Second, we will more easily be able to block and eliminate obscene, violent, and racist imagery, posted by people from outside our community. Freewheeling discussion and debate is not only allowed but encouraged, yet experience has taught us that just a few trolls can spoil a thread for everybody.

Third, spam will be greatly reduced, comments can be moderated much more quickly, and filters can be recalibrated to allow legitimate comments through much more easily and quickly.

Fourth, registering is easy, free, and it only has to be done once.

We feel this change will be good for all of us, and especially for you, our readers and commenters. Well-regarded commenters, as measured by their ratings points, have achieved their own devoted followings and may well turn out to be the next generation of Big contributors.

Thank you for your cooperation, and we look forward to seeing you on the Big sites.

Sincerely,

The Breitbart.com Editors

As I mentioned in my article from last week, Big Government commenters were prone to posting some pretty obscene, violent, and racist material that remained on the site well after complaints were filed.

I will be interested to see if this change will reduce the amount of flaming comments Breitbart permits on his sites. I am also interested to see if this will be used to more easily moderate and delete comments critical of the positions Breitbart & Co. decide to take.

Ironically, commenting had been disabled on the post encouraging visitors to register with IntenseDebate to leave comments...